Illusion Too
by Rosa17
Summary: A sequel to my short story Illusion a concluding part if you like. Post series 2.


Illusion Too

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.

"I don't like this." Much said, as he, Marian and Robin stood hidden in the castle.

"It will be fine," Robin reassured him, feeling jittery inside, for if Marian was caught their secret would be out in the open.

"I know what I am doing," she replied and although she spoke to Much, each man knew she addressed both of them in different ways.

"Do what we agreed, then you get out of here," Robin affirmed with his wife and she nodded.

"I am capable," she protested.

"But my heart is not, not capable of losing you yet again," he whispered in the darkness and although Much couldn't see them very well in the dimness he could sense exactly what feelings and sparks flew between them.

She leant forward and kissed him softly and he responded wanting a kiss to remember her by if this all went terribly wrong. Then they parted ways and both prayed for the best.

Gisborne drew the drapes around his bed to ward off the chill. He shivered not from cold but from a sudden fear that crawled up his spine. He shook his head and told himself not to be so stupid. He was in the castle, not Locksley, there would be nothing here to hurt or harm him tonight. Guy had not spent much time at Locksley since that last encounter with the ghost of Lady Marian three months ago. Since then stories had been rife and try as he might close his ears to them, he heard a new one at least once a day.

He laid down, his mind not a rest at all, it was active with everything the Sheriff was plotting, that and the guilt of killing Marian and now as if to make him pay she was haunting him. Not only when he rode through the forest but his dreams as well. Taunting dreams where she would tell him how much she had loved Hood all along and he wondered how he had been blind to her games and her manipulation, he felt cheated and betrayed.

Finally he drifted off to a light slumber but woke some time after midnight on hearing sounds the other side of his bed curtains. Curiosity getting the better of him he lit a candle and holding it out he carefully drew the drapes back. There in front of him was a vision; a vision of Marian. He shrieked and it caused the candle to extinguish but there was a light behind her and she seemed to glow in the darkness. His heart hammered in his chest. She was following him. She wasn't just haunting the forest she was haunting him personally and this he really did not like.

He nipped from the bed and hastily threw on some clothes and bid a fast retreat out of his bedchamber and down the corridor. Marian smiled, blew the candle out that was behind her and slipped into a dark hooded cloak, concealed she crept out of the room and went in the opposite direction to Guy.

Vasey's own snoring woke him with a jolt, it was that or he had been dreaming again. He blinked; the candle he had left burning helped with the blackness of the night. He would not even admit to Gisborne but since he had seen Marian in the forest he was scared of the dark. Stupid really for a man of his standing, he had not been afraid of anything, until that day. He rubbed his eyes and then looked across the room and there she stood. Just like before in the forest, a figure clothed in white. In her hand she held a piece of parchment. Trembling he leant forward trying to read the writing that was written there but all the letters seemed to blur as one. He shut his eyes and rubbed them and when he opened them once more the vision of Lady Marian, late wife of the notorious Robin Hood had vaporised into thin air.

With a roar close to that of a wounded lion he wrapped his black silk robe about his body and thundered off down the corridor, only to collide with a body coming the other way.

"What the?" he spitted out.

"My lord…" said Guy. "I did not see you, it is dark,"

"Dark! Dark! Of course it's dark Gisborne it is the middle of the night. What are you doing roaming the corridors?"

"I needed…I saw….I needed fresh air." He finally managed.

"You!" said Vasey realisation hitting him that he hadn't been the only one to see something that night. "You saw her too."

"What?" Guy replied in a loud whisper. "You saw Marian too?"

"Tell me Gisborne," said the Sheriff grabbing hold of the lapels of his lieutenant's shirt. "That I am not insane. That I was not the only one who saw the ghost of that blasted woman."

"I saw her dressed in white. An image of who she was on earth, with an ethereal glow about her body." Gisborne said half mesmerised by the memory, not so afraid now that he was not alone in the sighting.

"Yes," Vasey said and then took a large breath as he let go of Guy. "Yes and she was holding a piece of paper. I want to know what it said."

"I suppose," Gisborne said with a mild tinge of humour. "That you would have to see her ghostly form again to discover that."

"I don't want to see her again Gisborne, she died in the Holy Land, by your sword in the arms of Hood. I do not want to see her again. She is haunting my waking and my dreams. I want her eradicated and the only way to do that is to kill Locksley."

"Kill Robin Hood?" Guy said with a smile.

"What?" snapped the Sheriff.

"It's just that…."

"Just what? Spit it out Gisborne."

"We have tried to kill him more times than I would try to count and still he slips away, he is like a cat with nine lives. Except he has had about twenty so far."

"Still, we must prevail and there has to be a time when his luck runs out."

The men parted ways both pretending to be brave and went back to their respective chambers. Vasey sat down heavily at his desk and lit a candle, there sitting on the wooden boards was a piece of parchment. Hastily he snatched it up; it was in Hood's hand writing a documentation that gave Locksley authority given by the King himself to order such a decree. The document stated rules and regulations that he Vasey and his men had to uphold until the King returned from the Holy Land. It went on to say that his life might be spared if he redeemed himself by following this order and alleviating the oppression of the poor in Nottingham. Vasey threw the document down and screamed into thin air that he was not going to obey and stormed off to bed.

He was just in a pleasant dream of a certain young lady of his past, who if he was honest he had the slightest regret in letting her go over power and authority when he woke. Suddenly the room had suddenly gone cold and in his half slumbered state he did not recognize the shutters to his room had been opened. There by the desk stood Lady Marian. This time she had a quill in her hand and held it out to him above the parchment.

Vasey shook his head. There was absolutely no way that he would sign it. No, he could not and would not submit to laws set out by the King and overseen by Hood. No. Still Lady Marian appeared before him, a vision of white with an eerie glow behind her.

Finally he uttered his voice trembling, feeling ridiculous talking to a spirit. "If I sign it and follow it, will you promise never to haunt me again?"

The spirit smiled and held the quill out further to him and he shuddered, the thought of having to take something from the hand of a ghost was nauseating. Still he did with shaking hands and she stood over him and watched whilst he signed the document.

"Wonderful," said a voice from the doorway.

Vasey's head snapped up. "Hood!"

"Yes me," Robin said strolling into the room with his usual ease and grace. "I see you have signed the decree." He added with a smile that had Vasey's heart sinking like a brick to his stomach.

"Yes!" he croaked out. "If I see her again I will……"

"See who?" Robin replied feigning innocence.

"Marian. The ghost of Lady Marian. Perhaps she has not appeared to you as you could not save her life." Vasey said with cruel intent.

A flicker of emotion passed across Robin's face and Vasey thought he had hit him where it hurt the most. "Marian," Robin said softly and truthfully. "Is with me everyday of my life. I do not need ghosts to know she is right by my side."

Vasey stared at him trying to decipher exactly what he meant and whether he was in fact talking in riddles or had gone insane with grief, and Robin took the parchment.

"For safekeeping," he explained, "and I will be here, seen and unseen to ensure that this is carried out."

Vasey let out another roar as Robin walked freely out of his chamber and then the castle. He was never going to manage to uphold all that he signed and he did not want to either.

"Another visit I think." Robin said to Marian one morning some weeks later.

"With the ghost thing?" asked Allan. "I don't know if that is a good idea."

"I was actually thinking it was about time he realised Marian was alive." Robin said with a grin.

"The stories of the ghost are wilting away now, no one has seen anything for weeks," Much added. "Perhaps it is time."

"And," put in Robin. "In a few days the King will be back on English soil."

"We hope," Little John answered.

"The pigeon sent us the message," Marian shrugged, "all is well."

"And all's wells that ends well, which is why we need to pay little ole Vasey a visit." Robin said with a smile that lit up his eyes and made them twinkle with a mischievous glint.

Vasey and Guy were uncomfortable in their roles with the new legislations that Robin Hood had forced the Sheriff to instil among the populace. Between them were hatching a plan to rise again from the ashes. They sat in Locksley manor and were disturbed by a guard informing them of visitors. Guy gathered up the papers and hid them while the Sheriff preened himself ready to meet with the guests.

They walked in, Robin Hood and his wife Lady Marian accompanied by the King and Hood's men. Vasey's mouth dropped like a stone to the floor. Gisborne yanked his master's robe and they knelt as was customary.

"Your Majesty…" muttered Guy.

"Ma….Ma….Marian!" Vasey uttered, looking incredulously at her. "You are alive?" he added, it came out as a squeak and he realised that he had been had, there was no ghost of Lady Marian and never had been.

Guy's face was a picture as well as he too drank in the facts. "I do not understand. I thought you were dead."

She gave them half a smile which didn't reach her eyes as she stood there side by side with her husband holding his hand. Not only moral support for her but also for him.

"As you can see I am very much alive." She said gently.

"But the ghost, we saw you……..other people saw you…." Guy muttered.

"You saw what you wanted to see," said the King.

"But what you really saw was an illusion a trick with lights," added Robin.

"NO!" yelled the Sheriff. "NO I can not believe, I….Gisborne this is your fault. You were the one who told me there was a ghost and you let me believe it."

"It's no use blaming other people." Much added. "You believed what you wanted to believe."

"We just egged the situation on a bit," Added Allan with a cheeky grin.

The Sheriff made to lunge at them by Guy held him back a look of remorse on his face for 'killing' Marian. After their new plans were discovered, they were chained ready to be taken to London. Gisborne allowed himself one last look at Marian. She was radiant and in love, in love with Robin Hood. Everything that she had done and said to him in the past had been an illusion.

"I think that went well," said Much brushing his hands together later when the King had departed with his prisoners for the capital city.

"What say we go celebrate?" added Allan.

"You go…" Robin told them. "Marian and I have some celebrating of our own."

With that he took her by surprise and lifted her into his arms and carried her over the threshold of his home.

"Some things are not illusions," he told her with a smile.

"Welcome home," she whispered in return, meeting his lips in a kiss which filled every pore of their bodies and screamed for more. Robin closed the door on the gang.

"So it's just us then lads," said Allan looking at Much and Little John with a shrug.

"Come on," said John and pulled them both away to the tavern where they could celebrate the end of one life and the beginning of a new one as free men forever.

The End.


End file.
